Anderton
I think you're losing sight of the goal of plug-in management. The original request was to be able to know what new plug-ins were installed most recently. Presumably if you have a plug-in already installed, then you've decided where it should live in terms of organization. So when it gets overwritten with an update and given a modified date that's more recent than the installation date, it really doesn't matter in terms of affecting organization. The plug-in was already organized.
 
If you follow the advice in Week 78 referenced above, when you install a plug-in, put it in the appropriate folder...or in the uncategorized "pool" of plug-ins, and sort later. I just don't why that's such a problem.

yeah, plugin management is more than just knowing what new plugs are recently installed, it's the whole "organising" or "management" of the plugins, a much bigger scope

the op was that the pim "needs refining to make it scan faster and the GUI needs some thought as well" - the other stuff came out through discussion in the thread


i think most of us realise that there are ways and means to accomplish various things, but without suggestions for different or new ways of accomplishing those things nothing would ever change, except when marketing needed a new gimmick
 
i would like to see some pim functionality exposed via the browser ui (custom menu organisation maybe? enable/disable plugins? assign icons or colour coding?)
i would like to able to add my own meta data for plugin sorting/grouping/searching rather than relying on that included by the dev
i expect that the pim is used more often by most users than a theme editor might be
i'd like to do all this within the sonar gui, not messing about in windows exporer
 
for example

pwalpwal
i would like to see some pim functionality exposed via the browser ui (custom menu organisation maybe?)

 
So would I, and I think this would be far more useful and significant path to pursue than tweaking the PIM or giving it a nicer GUI.
 

i expect that the pim is used more often by most users than a theme editor might be

 
I would agree, but I suspect that for most people, the PIM does what they need whereas there's no way to edit themes. If you look back over this forum, the number of requests for more color customization options has been frequent and consistent. Given a choice between a spiffier PIM and no theme editor, or an adequate PIM and a theme editor, I think most would choose the latter although I have no stats to back up that opinion.
 
 
 

Both please!

Anderton
I think you're losing sight of the goal of plug-in management. The original request was to be able to know what new plug-ins were installed most recently. Presumably if you have a plug-in already installed, then you've decided where it should live in terms of organization.
 

 
Just because you've installed a plug-in...it doesn't mean that you've also taken the time to go into the PIM and decide where it goes (even if that would have only been to put it in "uncategorized").  So...even if you've gone through the effort at one time of doing a scorched earth re-org of your plugin layout...it doesn't mean that stuff won't "escape" because...face it...stuff happens.  There will be plugs that "get away". 
 
It's that "Presumably" part that doesn't work all that well.
 
There should be an easier way to identify un-included plugs other than just being "new"...because things have the opportunity to become "old" before they are properly dealt with.
 

dantarbill

Anderton
I think you're losing sight of the goal of plug-in management. The original request was to be able to know what new plug-ins were installed most recently. Presumably if you have a plug-in already installed, then you've decided where it should live in terms of organization.
 

 
Just because you've installed a plug-in...it doesn't mean that you've also taken the time to go into the PIM and decide where it goes (even if that would have only been to put it in "uncategorized").

 
Well...I take the time to do it, so problem solved   The main "after the fact" thing I do with the PIM is place plug-ins I use all the time in a "Favorites" folder. 
 

Anderton

dantarbill

Anderton
I think you're losing sight of the goal of plug-in management. The original request was to be able to know what new plug-ins were installed most recently. Presumably if you have a plug-in already installed, then you've decided where it should live in terms of organization.
 

 
Just because you've installed a plug-in...it doesn't mean that you've also taken the time to go into the PIM and decide where it goes (even if that would have only been to put it in "uncategorized").

 
Well...I take the time to do it, so problem solved   The main "after the fact" thing I do with the PIM is place plug-ins I use all the time in a "Favorites" folder. 
 

I'll come and work on your machine.

what's in the "Favorites" folder please? :-)

dantarbill
 
I'll come and work on your machine.

 
LOL!! I guess the issue is I make part of my living from what I create with SONAR, so I better have an organized system.
 
Probably I just accept the "busy work" that's needed with DAWs, having grown up with the constant maintenance that tape machines required. Maintaining DAWs and computers, despite their occasional hissy fits, is a lot less enervating.

Anderton

dantarbill
I'll come and work on your machine.

 
LOL!! I guess the issue is I make part of my living from what I create with SONAR, so I better have an organized system.
 
Probably I just accept the "busy work" that's needed with DAWs, having grown up with the constant maintenance that tape machines required. Maintaining DAWs and computers, despite their occasional hissy fits, is a lot less enervating.

Craig, busywork is one thing, and in most cases, keeping up with new plugins isn't that hard. The real problem comes when you have a suite of plugins that you've organized already, and an update to the plugins causes them to disappear from your carefully crafted custom menu layout. Now, one must determine which plugins need to be added back to the menu because they are no longer there, but not add any that one didn't want to include previously, but not exclude them, because one never knows when it might be useful and can be loaded from the full, non-custom menu anytime to find it.
 
I understand the Browser is where it's at going forward, but as long as the custom menu layouts are supported, it should be easier to know which ones are in the menu and which ones are not. It really is the only major new thing most are asking for.
 
Regards,
Dan

dcumpian
The real problem comes when you have a suite of plugins that you've organized already, and an update to the plugins causes them to disappear from your carefully crafted custom menu layout. Now, one must determine which plugins need to be added back to the menu because they are no longer there, but not add any that one didn't want to include previously, but not exclude them, because one never knows when it might be useful and can be loaded from the full, non-custom menu anytime to find it.

 
Okay, I didn't realize that plug-ins changing their CLSID with an update was that common a problem. Generally when I update a plug-in, it stays where I put it; and because the ones I don't use are in an Uncategorized folder, they always have a home too.
 
I know this isn't what you want, but you might want to know that you can open a .PGL file in a text editor. At first it's just a daunting collection of text, but if you find/replace Name= with a return, then you get a list of all plug-ins in the layout, with the custom name listed first and the original name listed next. You can also replace other text strings with nothing, which cleans it up further. Probably the main value of this is you can see all the VST CLSIDs easily.